Remembering Miss O'Keeffe: stories from Abiquiu
By: by Margaret Wood ; photographs by Myron Wood ; foreword by Miriam Sagan
Contributors: Wood, Myron, illustrator
Edition: First [edition].
Publisher: Museum of New Mexico Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Santa Fe
Language: eng
Number of pages: 63
ISBN-13: 9780890135464
Subjects: Last years; Biography; Artists
Description: In 1977, Margaret Wood was a twenty-four-year-old living an ordinary life in Lincoln, Nebraska. That year, her life changed as she came to Abiquiu, a remote village in northern New Mexico, where she began a five-year stay as companion and caretaker to then eighty-nine year old Georgia O'Keeffe. There were no sign posts in the village in those years, and few markers for a young woman managing the complex role as companion to a woman of O'Keeffe's stature who nonetheless was now dependent on others to maintain the independent life she had cultivated so fiercely. Growing and preparing food was one of O'Keeffe's greatest pleasures, with the artist mentoring her young caregiver on the art of gardening and cooking. Wood and O'Keeffe often walked the red hills of Ghost Ranch in early evenings, the place where the artist experienced true freedom. The artist had a reputation of living a secluded life, but in fact enjoyed welcoming a host of visitors to her home. Wood shares anecdotes about these social exchanges, along with a treasure trove of stories intimately shared.